subfossiln.adj.

1806 J. Robertson Traveller's Guide Ireland 98 White limestone is every where traced as a subfossil to the basalt, beneath which there is generally a rich bed of marle.

1831 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. ii. 152 At Nice the sub-fossils of St. Hospice have long attracted attention.

1887 Sci. Amer. 12 Mar. 168/2 Its remains [sc. those of Epiornis] occur in recent alluvial deposits, and from their recency are classified as sub-fossils._

1932 Q. Rev. Biol. 7 412/1 Fossils and sub-fossils, probably mostly of Pleistocene age, reveal an old fauna.__

1988 New Scientist 4 Feb. 128 The samples are ‘sub-fossils’, that is, the original organic material still exists, although it has to some extent been compacted and oxidised.

2009 J. A. Coyne Why Evol. is True iv. 110 When the Polynesians arrived in Hawaii about 1,500 years ago, they found about 140 species of native birds (we know this from studies of bird ‘subfossils’.).__

1829 H. T. De la Beche in Trans. Geol. Soc. 3 172 Between Villefranche and St. Hospice, the breccia reposes on a loose light-coloured sand, full of shells, which so nearly resemble those of the Mediterranean, that they have been called sub-fossil: though generally bleached, there are some which retain traces of their native colours.

1851 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca i. 130 Struthiolaria... Australia and New Zealand; where alone it occurs sub-fossil.

1880 A. R. Wallace Island Life ii. xix. 389 A small sub-fossil hippopotamus.

1958 R. Garnett tr. B. Heuvelmans On Track of Unknown Animals x. 233 Most moa bones are in a sub-fossil state.

1989 Jrnl. Biogeogr. 16 379/1 Another unexpected finding was the presence of reindeer faecal pellets in the younger of the sub-fossil peat deposits.

2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees xii. 281 Fossil and sub-fossil pollen sometimes provides a continuous record of ancient floras over tens of millions of years.